Serving the community and the environment

By Karl Garcia

Ever since I saw guest blogs from Bill in Oz and Sonny, I also wanted to submit a guest blog for the Filipino-German Learning Center. This is not about history, but of various topics that Irineo has already reviewed and some topics I wanted to be reviewed.

Our justice system

I have long proposed those that can be settled in the barangay not to reach the court.

The justice on wheels program (link) try to reduce all the court backlogs, and most cases they just settle it, not monetary amicable settlement, just amicably so it would be all over.

We have jail cells full of minors and even without the minors they are still jam packed like sardines. I won’t touch on our maximum security prisons full of jail house rockers, maybe later.

I suggest more Boys and Girls towns. And it is about time to charge the parents.

Children sniffing solvent, children throwing rocks at windshields, children jumping on roofs of jeepneys. Something has to be done (link).

30 comments to Serving the community and the environment

Senator Loren Legarda renewed her call to local government units (LGUs) to strictly enforce the Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) Law and the Clean Water Act to strengthen the protection and preservation of marine ecosystems. Legarda made the statement as she welcomed the move of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to declare Sabang Bay in Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro and Coron Bay in Palawan as water quality management areas (WQMAs) to protect their rich marine biodiversity from the impact of tourism.

To this cynical old journalist who has just about lost hope we can do things like clean up a dirty river, new hope was rekindled by my visit over the weekend to Iloilo. It was not just me. My colleagues, all skeptics because of our long experience covering government, felt the same way too.

Indeed, the first question we almost cried out in unison was: can we do that for Pasig River? Despite the tireless effort of Gina Lopez, it is beginning to look like she has met her match with the Pasig River clean up.

Good article Karl..Thanks for posting the link..I did not know that 11 states in the USA have deposit laws on drink containers.. I always though South Australia was unique as there is no other state in Australia that does it..due to successful lobbying by Coca Cola and Pepsico
Sigh !

University of the Philippines Law graduates are not serving the Filipinos. No U.P.-Law Graduates offered pro bono services to RCBC ex-Branch Manager DeGuito against Chinese Lorenzo Tan and Chinese-owned RCBC.

U.P. is not polling what Filipinos think of deGuito: Guilty/NotGuilty. They are busy polling politicians.

In the U.S. Law Students able to free wronglfully imprisoned individuals. U.S. Organizations go to Africa to free indebted children paying for their parents sins.

I very much like the two ideas about young people: (1) punishing parents, and (2) community service. I rather think jail time in a crowded, stinky clink does little to rehabilitate people. The barangay system is perfect for assigning the first level of punishments. I’d recommend a three-member barangay judicial panel rather than have the Captain do it. He should be insulated from the assignment of punishment lest he become punished. For more serious crimes or repeat offenders, move it to the municipality/city level. “Community courts”

Your idea is good practical learning in Civics, Joe. Also a good place and time to demonstrate community cohesion (solidarity), preserve order in the town, province, region then country (subsidiarity).

The Rooftop Eatable Garden started as a collective idea between neighbors in my building in Brooklyn, New York. By planting a eatable garden on an unused area we’ve transformed a neglected rooftop into a productive green space that contributes to urban ecology. We provide healthy food, reduce CO2 emissions, increase habitat for birds, there is a considerable amount of benefits that green roofs provide. For that reason we encourage people to connect back to the simple joy of growing their own food.

Garbage is a big issue here..I want to make some comments based on what happens in South Australia.
1 : All households have three, 3,THREE, bins ! My repeats are for emphasisis.
One bin id for all recyclibles :glass,metal, hard plastics…
2: This is for kitchen scrap waste & paper : all this goes to a green waste facility where it is composted for a month or so.The compost is then valuable and is sold back to farmers and gardeners. But many households that have a garden do the composting at home so they have fertiliser for the garden. ( I do this in my home. But I don’t recommend composting any meat scraps to avoid encouraging mice & rats. )
3 This bin is for real rubbish.It goes to landfil.

South Australia has another law which helps reduce littering : ALL drink containers have a 10 cents deposit fee added onto the cost of purchase. If these containers are returned to a the local rubbish transfer station ( former tip site ) they get the 10 cents back. So now there is an industry for poor people collecting these drink containers from all over the towns & cities and returning them to the waste transfer station. Now this would really help here in the Philippines..Reduce waste and reduce poverty..A real Win Win !!
But of course Coco Cola & Pepsi etc doesn’t like it..But I say stuff them. It works for the community..Get out of the god dammed way Coke !

About those jailhouse rockers.
This one even had a concert outside the bilibid.

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Herbert “Ampang” Colangco, a convicted bank robbery gang leader who appeared to have turned his kubol inside the New Bilibid Prison into a recording studio, held a concert in a hotel in Pasay City last September despite having no authorization.